At the end of May, Their Royal Highnesses Timothy and Ismay announced their plans for their Coronation. The State of Georgia was allowing small gatherings. Their Highnesses would then have an very small in-person coronation. Each peerage circle would provide one member to swear fealty on behalf of that order. I was honored to be selected to present the fealty for the Order of the Laurel.
As part of an earlier conversation, I had offered to make a box to hold fealty letters for all the orders. That plan was eventually abandoned, but the idea of the box stuck around. And so I started building a box.
I’ve done several blog posts on boxes. In truth, there’s not much different between those boxes and this one. I did want to do smaller dovetails and wanted to try a “tip” I had gotten on how to make dovetails a bit easier.
In general, this is a standard 6 panel dovetailed box. The dimensions were driven by the fact that it needed to hold standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper tri-folded, like you would put in a standard envelope. My target internal dimensions were 9″ x 5″.
Construction
I recently watched a series of videos by Michael Pekovich of Fine Woodworking Magazine. He uses blue painters tape to make dovetails easier. First, it provides an easy to see visual line. Secondly it provide a tactile guide for lack of a better term for starting cuts. To do this, you cover the end of the board in a single layer of blue tape. Then you use a cutting tool to mark your cuts, you can peel the tape off of the areas to be removed. This shows you clearly your cut line and waste area.
I intentionally went with small pins as a challenge to myself. The narrow end of the pins are approximately 1/8″
I used to just set one pin side even with the top of my bench and lay the tail board on top to transfer the markings. I had seen this technique before, but Mr. Pekovich reminded me of it. This time I used a bench plane to help elevate the work. I think it makes it a bit easier and lessens any chance of unevenness in your work bench impacting the joint.
First I put the pin board in my vice with the plane set right beside it. I use a flat scrap board to ensure the top of the pin board is even with the top of the plane while I close the vice. I then move the plane away from the pin board just short of the length of the tail board. Next the tail board is clamped in place with one end resting on the pin board and the other on the plane.
A word of warning: Remember that the tape can interfere with test fittings. So, you will need to remove the tape in the areas where it’s presence would impact the fit. Don’t forget to label your joints so they can be matched back up.
And now for the full test fit.
Initially I planned on the top and bottom having a bit of an overhang on all four sides. I was going to rabbet them, leaving a sort of tenon to fit inside the box.
But then I encountered a problem: I mixed up the measurements. I ripped the top and bottom to the exact width of the box instead of leaving them a bit wide.
This error incurred a “design modification.” The bottom and top were cut to the exact external dimensions of the box. Then a rabbet was put on all four sides equal to the thickness of the walls of the box. The fit was finessed using a rabbet plane until the top was a friction fit.
Another note of warning real quick. I left the tape on the box where I could to help with glue squeeze out. You need to remove the tape while you fit the top and bottom, or you risk making a sloppy joint.
With that, the construction portion of this project was done.
Carving
I went through many iterations of design on this box. My first thought was their personal arms on the front and a banner on top with some cool saying. It honestly did not look right and I’m sadly incapable of coming with anything “cool.”
The next step was their devices on the front with kingdom iconography on the sides and back and the banner on top. I was going to put them all within gothic arches. Aside from the aforementioned lack of witticism, there was another issue with this idea. The aspect ratio didn’t allow for gothic arches which left space wide enough for decent sized spots for the various devices.
The fall back from here was the traditional arch. This allowed for an attractive arch with plenty of room. I decided on stars for left and right and horses on the back. For the top, I realized that I should include something which said who this gift was from. That led to the eureka moment of putting the laurel wreath on top within the same style of arch as the other sides. I liked that this tied the five carved sides together.
I used my usual method of carving. I printed out my patterns to match the size of the various parts. I attached them to the boards using spray adhesive. A slight change to my normal procedure was using carving gouges to outline the shapes at almost 90 degrees. In the past I have used a v-gouge to out line the shapes. While that is quicker, I think you get a better result with a more vertical incision.
After the designs were fully outlined, I began grounding the surroundings. Primarily gouges in the 2 or 3 sweep were used for this purpose. I did occasionally use 1/8 S to get into the tight areas. (If you’re confused about the gouge numbering, one of my earlier posts covered this topic).
Once I got the grounding all done. I needed to look at the details on the personal devices. I could have incised the designs into the escutcheons on their personal devices. But I think that would have looked strange. So, I choose to relieve the escutcheon shape, thus creating an intermediate level between the background and the charges on the devices.
Once all the grounding/relieving was done, I need to look into creating some depth between the fore ground and background. Other wise the monochromatic pallet tends to hide detail.
Initially I was going to stipple the back ground. This is when you apply a random pattern of dots or specks to piece in question. This is generally done with a custom made tool which makes a series of holes, usually several at a time. I didn’t have a stippling tool.
I decided to instead go with a cross hatched diapering pattern. Diapering is just a repeating geometric (or floral) pattern. I went with a simple cross hatch at a 45 degree angle to lines which were spaced approximately 1/4″ apart. This created the needed separation between the background and the focus of the piece without over powering the details in the fore-ground. The diapering lines were applied with a 12/8 gouge.
I assembled and glued the box once the sides were carved. Then I could continue working on the lid while the glue dried. And yes, it was hot in my unconditioned shop so I did the carving on my dining room table.
I did add a champfer to the top of the box and the bottom of the lid. This creates a shadow line to help see where to open it. It also provides a space for the fingers to get a grip on the lid to lift it off.
There was no hardware on this project since I chose a simple lift off lid. I went with walnut oil for the finish. I think for this style of box a simple oil finish is the way to go.
Conclusion
In general I’m very happy with how this turned out. The first pictures of this project were taken on June 6th. Coronation was June 27th. I was done with the box the Wednesday before Coronation, so the 24th.
The only true errors on this project was the cutting of the top and bottom too narrow. But, there were minor slips with the carving gouges as well. You have to tread lightly over the fine details.
On a completely unrelated note, I’m really happy with how the finished product photos came out. They were taken with my phone. It was bright but overcast day and white poster board was used as the back ground. So, pretty close to ideal for product photography.
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